I received an e-mail from a lady this weekend who was looking for “Pink food” for a party her workplace was giving for breast cancer survivors. What an absolutely inspired and beautiful idea! The premise touches me so much that I thought I’d create a post in its honor AND in honor of the individuals who have fought this demon and are having the last laugh.

According to Breast Cancer.org, breast cancer survivors AND those of us wishing to never fight the battle on our home turf should cut out as much fat from our diets as possible. We should most definitely eat more vegetables and fruit. If one’s overweight, they should lose it and keep it off. Exercise is also highly recommended. I guess if a person cuts out fat, fills up on fruits and vegetables, and gets plenty of exercise – the weight will pretty much take care of itself!

My own aunt (Penny) stared it in the eye and I can honestly say that one of the most beautiful things I’ve ever witnessed in all my life is the grace with which she did so. I remember her once saying how that a lot of people say, “Why me?” when they’ve been diagnosed with cancer – but that she thought, “Well… Why not me?” She always said that she had God on her side, so she knew she was in good hands. Apparently the best!

Below are some ideas for “pink foods,” including links to recipes, more information, etc. I’ve researched what foods experts have said are especially healthy foods for people dealing with breast cancer and/or those trying to keep it from showing up on their doorstep. These foods/drinks are in bold. If you have any other ideas to add, I’d love for you to leave them in the comments!

Baked Sugar Cookies with Cream Cheese Icing. (I’ll be writing my own favorite recipe for Sugar Cookies as well as a recipe fro the BEST Cream Cheese Icing you ever tasted in the next post. I’ll include a picture of how they look wearing their pink bling!) You can either tint the icing to pink using a little red, buy pink food coloring in a cake decorating store or craft’s aisle, or do as I do (simply because I HATE food coloring with a colorful passion) – sprinkle on prink crystals from the baking aisle.

Pink Grapefruit! Cut into chunks and chill. A fruit salad could be created by adding strawberries, blueberries, blackberries, and grapes. Sure, it allows a little more colors in than pink – but it also allows a LOT of antioxidants and healthy vitamins in.

Serve Milk made Sexy with Nestlee’s Quick Strawberry Pink Mix. You get your Vitamin D, it’s a beautiful shade of pink AND most of our mothers used to make this for us a lot, trying to sneak milk past us – so it’s a beautiful comfort food. Experts say that Vitamin D curbs the growth of cancerous cells.

Salmon – Granted, salmon may prove a bit of a challenge for luncheons – but if you can manage to grill, broil, or steam your salmon steaks right before it’s time to eat, they’re beautifully healthy and marvelously pink. (Salmon’s also a good source of Vitamin D.)

Shrimp – Again, you’d have to be very careful to keep it on ice, but shrimp cocktail would be a great thing to serve at a Pink Party. It’ delicious, healthy, and pinkish. If you add a little horseradish to your cocktail sauce, you can even make it a little pinker. (Shrimp’s also a good source of Vitamin D.)

Hot dogs! – When I told my husband what I was doing when he caught me thinking (rare things always draw attention), the first thing he said was, “Hot dogs.” And right he is! A delicious way to serve them is to cut the weiners (traditional or “veggie”) into thirds. Wrap uncooked bacon around each and fasten to the weiner with a toothpick. Do so with the entire package. Place all of them, toothpicks up, in a large crockpot. Sprinkle generously with brown sugar. Cook on Low until they’re “done.” Healthy? Not particularly. Delicious? Decidedly so.

Ham slices – About as pink as it gets.

Pink Lemonade

Pink Cotton Candy – You can usually find some pre-packaged in a department store. Another option would be to buy a Cotton Candy Machine and make your own!

Strawberry Ice Cream. – Served either alone or in pink ice cream cones. You could even tie an all-important and symbolic pink ribbon around each cone.

Create Chocolate Covered Strawberries and Color them pink! After I exhausted my brain power (I heard that!), I googled, “Baby Shower food ideas” – knowing that they often focus on blues and pinks. I found the following recipe for Chocolate Covered Strawberries and am now craving one big time! –

Don’t forget about the beautiful reds that are, after all, in Pink’s family. They’re one of her parents, after all! Pomegranates, strawberries, cherries, raspberries, red pepper, red onion, etc. Each of these, when combined with other foods will more than serve as stand ins for pink.

Japanese Fishcake – Granted, you may need a Japanese Restaurant for this one, but just look at the picture below. Gorgeous!

Keep in mind, when your plates, napkins, and collective mindset is PINK, even foods that don’t look particularly pink by themselves will appear pink. You can also think about and focus on the meanings of the other colors as well. For example, White stands for purity, Blue stands for loyalty, and Red envokes thoughts of bravery, boldness and power.

If you go to your local bakery and tell them you’re preparing a special “Pink Party,” I know they’ll be able to offer up some amazing advice and pink delicasies. People love to feel helpful and to feel like they’re part of the battle – fighting on the side of the brave! It’ll also be the winning side.

If you have enough time, buy (or rent) a cotton candy machine and make your own pink (of course) cotton candy.

When buying napkins, toothpicks, etc – don’t just check the nearest department or grocery store. Hit up a special Birthday, Party or Card outlet store. Don’t just check the birthday section either – head over to the baby shower supplies. Lots of girly pink!

The Breast Cancer Diet (Another MUST READ) This diet heralds the importance of whole grains, nuts, fruits, vegetables, beans, citrus fruits (bodes well for our pink grapefruit, right?), dairy products, soy, garlic, herbs and spices (for their cancer-fighting phytochemicals), evoo, fiber, and green tea (the author of the Breast Cancer Diet drinks almost as much green tea as I do! She writes, “I make a half-gallon pitcher of iced green tea every other day. I drink it for the promising anticancer activity of a compound it contains called epigallocatechin gallate (EGCG).”) If you know someone who is a breast cancer survivor or are interested in increasing your protection against the demon, read this article. It’s very well-written and wonderfully informative.

*** I’ll be adding more recipes throughout the day including my favorite Sugar Cookie recipe that I almost always frost with the BEST Cream Cheese Icing on earth. I also have a few other recipes I rounded up. The problem is, my much beloved and adorable 20 year old cat Prissy (who recently suffered another stroke) has decided to go to sleep right on top of the recipe books I had laid out. Needless to say I’ll be waiting for my little antique girl to wake up and move. Time with her is so precious, I let her do what she wants to do, when she wants to do it. And right now, she wants to sleep on mommy’s work!

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